wow that's some strong Maiden and Priest influences there. I'm mostly familiar with I guess what you can only call classic Overkill, but it is always interesting to hear a band's demos.

By the way, I don't know about you lot but I've always wondered why Anthrax were elevated to Big 4 status when tbh they don't have as many good albums as Overkill or Exodus. I quite like Anthrax by all means, but really only Among The LIving has that kind of "classic" status, wheras Overkill have at least two or three albums you could call classic thrash albums.

although on the same kind of subject I wish more funeral doom metal bands would break from the whole "my dying bride but really slow" formula. I like MDB, but tbh I prefer stuff more like what I like to call the finnish template of funeral doom a la Skepticism and Thergothon. That's less of a "waaa I'll moan about this on the internet" thing and more of a personal preference.

I've noticed a lot of Funeral Doom bands don't play anything much like Skepticism, which saddens me because I really like Skepticism.

I've gotten to the point I don't really bother looking for funeral doom any more.

tbh this might just be because I used to read metal hammer and most of the metalheads I know hail it as "saving metal" which as you might imagine gets a bit grating after a while since A: Metal is fine, arguably stronger in terms of quality (although this is totally subjective) than it has been in the last 10 years and B: if it did need saving then playing thrash like it's 1984 would be an indicator of stagnation rather than of progress.

tl:dr I get annoyed at things I really shouldn't bother with.

E:
although on the same kind of subject I wish more funeral doom metal bands would break from the whole "my dying bride but really slow" formula. I like MDB, but tbh I prefer stuff more like what I like to call the finnish template of funeral doom a la Skepticism and Thergothon. That's less of a "waaa I'll moan about this on the internet" thing and more of a personal preference.

don't read metal magazines lol there's all you need to know. record labels basically pay them to say that

wow that's some strong Maiden and Priest influences there. I'm mostly familiar with I guess what you can only call classic Overkill, but it is always interesting to hear a band's demos.

By the way, I don't know about you lot but I've always wondered why Anthrax were elevated to Big 4 status when tbh they don't have as many good albums as Overkill or Exodus. I quite like Anthrax by all means, but really only Among The LIving has that kind of "classic" status, wheras Overkill have at least two or three albums you could call classic thrash albums.

because among the living is better than anything exodus ever did.
exodus made two good albums, anthrax made one amazing one and two good albums
Overkill made one great album, one good one, a bunch of kinda shitty ones, one amazing one, more garbage, then recently started making good ones again. They're too hit or miss.

Anthrax made it BIGGGGGGGGGGGGG in the late 80s with Among and their crossover stuff into rap in 1990/1991

Edited:

tl;dr anthrax was more consistent in the 80s and remained relevant in the early 90s

So, I never really liked extreme metal (aside from thrash, but I don't really consider that extreme) before now, but I'm starting to get into it after listening to a lot of prog rock/metal stuff.

Any suggestions of bands similar to Katatonia or Bloodbath?

What era Katatonia?

Probably not early Katatonia, since you said you don't much care for extreme metal.

If you want Viva Emptiness-era Katatonia, then you may want to look into nu metal, because, sorry to say, Viva Emptiness-era Katatonia have heavy nu-metal tendencies, with Gothic influences. You may want to check out Paradise Lost's Symbol of Life and Paradise Lost albums. They're more rock than metal, but they have those same Gothic vibes Katatonia have, and have a few parts that are nu-metal influenced.

If you want new, Night is the New Day-era Katatonia, then I suggest Paradise Lost's Faith Divides Us Death Unites Us. It really is a spiritual sister album to Night is the New Day - and consequently I don't much care for either of them.